Resource Section Updates

[Rufus]

Greetings Hivers!
We bring you some updates regarding the sites hosted projects and a new useful feature for finding resources you like.

New Hosted Project Display
We have, for a long time, wanted to give hosted projects a place in the sun. A simple section far down on the forum list just wasn't good enough. So, we decided to give the projects display a worthy design update, in a relevant place.

If you haven't noticed it already, it is already live in the maps section!
It looks like this:

You can also check it out in the maps section in its full glory!

Every hour eight random projects are displayed of which two are completed and six are active.
If there is not enough projects to display of one type, it will fill in from the other type. That is why it currently displays more than two completed ones.
The completed projects are marked with a golden tick.


Completed Projects
We are pleased to announce that two hosted projects have been finished!
Those projects have been hosted and created new amazing content for a long time, and now, at long last, they are completed.

The projects we are talking about are The Dwarven Monster Slayers and The Chosen Ones.

The Dwarven Monster Slayers Dwarven Monster Slayers is a fast paced 1-5 player coop survival arcade RPG slasher game. The map features a massive load of completely new monsters, a detailed and atmospheric dungeon scenario, a considerably amount of gore and for the best: DWARVES! The project has been hosted on the hive since June 2013, and been active all the way until today, when it is finally finished. But its story doesn't end here! During the time it was hosted on the Hive, DMS have grown its own wings, and been turned into a standalone game, independent of Warcraft III! MoCo, the developer of DMS, has created an awesome website where you can follow the progress and development of the game, and I can only speak for myself but, it is looking so awesome. I'm sure he would be very glad if you check it out! www.dwarvenmonsterslayers.com Download - Forum

The Chosen Ones Enter the world of Oelivert and experience a strong storyline that covers hate, love, war and peace. The Chosen Ones is a singleplayer RPG that contains dozens of hours of content and an awesome amount of secrets to be found. The project has been hosted on the hive since February 2013, and have been finished for quite a while already. But wait! There's more! Aeroblyctos, the author of TCO, has lately been expanding even further on the already complex and intriguing story of the game in the form of a book! There has not yet been released even a sneakpeek on the story itself, but from the looks of Aeroblyctos casual updates, it seems like it is progressing just fine. However, I hope that he will do an offical shout out when he finishes it! Download - Forum

Thanks a bunch to both of you for contributing to the Hive with such awesome projects!

New Resource List Feature
Today we are also super excited to introduce another new feature for models, icons and textures called "View Usage" and one for maps called "View Resources In Use". When a map is uploaded, all files inside of the map are extracted for their "finger prints" to be indexed. This allows us to cross reference it with resources uploaded to the site and the reverse, see which maps use a resource you uploaded.
Let me show you how it works:

I am viewing the map Sunken City by SpasMaster and clicking "View Resources In Use":


The following page shows up with a list of all resources on the site that are in use in this map:


Now I click on the resource Grassie by HappyTauren and click "View Usage":


And this page shows up with a list of all maps that use this model:


We believe this feature will be awesome for a lot of you.
For those mappers that forget to make a credit list, they can get some pretty serious help making one this way.
For those artists wanting to see if people use their work and to shout at them for forgetting to give credit.
Enjoy this new feature!


Note: This news is most likely posted while the existing map database is being indexed, so please stand by while the indexing takes place. We have quite a lot of maps to index.

 

[deepstrasz]

Every hour eight random projects are displayed of which two are completed and six are active.

That's kind of a gamble. Isn't there a way to put them into a slideshow instead (with the option to click back and forth buttons to get to one end or the other)?

 

[Rufus]

We actually had that as on option when we discussed the design, but it didn't turn out very well in the end.
And, if you feel the need to see all the other completed projects, you can just press the title over the boxes to display them.

 

[Chaosy]

Not something that will affect me, so I do not exactly care.
But it should be an upgrade, even if just a minor one.

 

[Kazeon]

New Resource List Feature

Great feature! This way I don't need to crawl over the whole project folder and open those readme files one by one! Totally approved!

 

[Rufus]

Glad you're satisfied.

 

[Ungoliath]

The resource list is an awesome feature! Although it seems to display some models that are not imported (I checked my map "A Terrible Nightmare"). I have however imported another model by that same creator! Could it be that they all share the same texture, and thus all end up on the resource list?

 

[Rufus]

That I summon @Ralle for.

 

[Ralle]

The resource list is an awesome feature! Although it seems to display some models that are not imported (I checked my map "A Terrible Nightmare"). I have however imported another model by that same creator! Could it be that they all share the same texture, and thus all end up on the resource list?

That must be it. I can't think of any other reason.

 

[IcemanBo]

Awesome work!

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

How would this interact with skins, as changing path name changes the internal name itself?

 

[deepstrasz]

Hah, one of my maps has Dragon Loading Screen because of the filename matching the one in the import manager

 

[Misha]

Hmm.. i have a suggestion for the resources that show in maps, they should have a number right next to their filename on the bundle, which shows how many times they've been used.
and maybe we should get a small notification ( that we can just click off, so its not too spammy) whenever someone used a resource we made)

 

[Ralle]

How would this interact with skins, as changing path name changes the internal name itself?

The path is not part of it. The file contents are.

Hmm.. i have a suggestion for the resources that show in maps, they should have a number right next to their filename on the bundle, which shows how many times they've been used.
and maybe we should get a small notification ( that we can just click off, so its not too spammy) whenever someone used a resource we made)

Excellent suggestion. I actually had the same thought, it just requires significant coding to not make it spammy and to keep the counts correct at all times.

Hah, one of my maps has Dragon Loading Screen because of the filename matching the one in the import manager

Interesting. More than 2000 maps use this. Even my maps. I have no idea why that is.

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Shame it won't work for skins then.

But an excellent addition overall.
Now, excuse me while I stalk the people who haven't gave me credits for my stuff and politely nudge them in the ribs, with a pitchfork

 

[KILLCIDE]

For those mappers that forget to make a credit list, they can get some pretty serious help making one this way.

If only I can say the same for the Spell Section :*(

 

[Flux]

When a map is uploaded, all files inside of the map are extracted for their "finger prints" to be indexed.

I'm guessing that 'finger print' is either MD5 or SHA1 (or a more secure hash?). If that's true, then a minor edit/recolor of a resource will make the resource undetected right? Too bad, I'm one of those people who edit a model/icon/skin (i.e. recolor, add animation, remove unnecessary animation, add particles, etc.) to fit the map better.

The path is not part of it. The file contents are.

Shame it won't work for skins then.

Wait so that means it should work for skins right? Since it checks the file not the path.

If only I can say the same for the Spell Section :*(

Quite impossible I think. First, Spells/Systems are configurable so you can't use the exact script to apply the hash algorithm to. Second, all scripts of a Spell/System (GUI, JASS, vJASS) are placed and combined in war3map.j so there's no way to enumerate it. The only way I can think of is to allow users to manually add resources to it (similar to making a Credit list with links, but this is slightly better because it is displayed as bundle).

Overall, this is a brilliant idea that is well executed. Good job Ralle and Hive Staff!

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Lemme do an example to simplify.

My skin's name is JadeMaiden.blp
Imported correctly, it displays as Jaina.blp

THW Recognizes "Jaina.blp" and associates is to every skin ever in life uploaded as Jaina.blp, mine or not, but it does not associate it to JadeMaiden.blp which is the actual used skin.

I figured skins would be problematic with this since their "original" name is hidden when re-patching ladder resources, and they end up displaying standard name.

 

[Flux]

Looks good to me. It may compare it to every file uploaded as Jaina.blp, but only 1 hash will match (that is assuming that it works by comparing hash).

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

It's not working for all skins. Maps I know that have my Moonhaunt Ranger skin aren't displaying it (yet).

May we know what goes to skin selection if they're using internal (base unit skin applies to) name? Size?
Or it magically extracts original name?

 

[LordDz]

That credit thing is really awesome as I lost my credits.txt a while back.

 

[Shyster]

The resource cross reference is awesome! I've been slowly working on my credits list for several months now, and it probably still won't ever be fully complete even with this great new feature lolol

Important question for me --- does it matter if the file name has been changed for Hive to recognize the resource I am guessing?

 

[MasterTrainer]

Holy dear Christ this new resource feature is awesome
Being able to find all maps that contain the certain resource is hmm... could be useful some day.
*Fades into the shadows*
*Evil laugh*

 

[Misha]

yet another suggestion, that we resource-makers should be able to do, is manually add what we definitely know is in the map. like my gnoll snapdragon rider that is in the 'revenge of the riders' map. Or Aph's jade girl :3

 

[Ralle]

@Apheraz Lucent It only works if the skin file is completely unmodified. Filename does not matter, contents of the file do.

 

[Eagle XI]

Apparently im the only one bothered by that typo: its dwarven not dwarwen.